I had been categorized as a stage IIB, but after a PET scan it was switched to III because there was indication that a couple lymph nodes were involved. I was somewhat comfortable with stage IIB, but III scares me to death. I read five year survival is only about 72% vs 98% at IIB. We are getting a second opinion at Slone Kettering on the 19th. Any other stage III that can make me feel better?

So glad you are getting a second opinion. I think it's a great idea to help make the best, informed decision. I've known many Stage III women who are still here and thriving. This is an aggressive cancer that doesn't follow the norm or statistics. I've seen women with small tumors progress to mets and other women on this group with large tumors, nodal involvement who never recur. So don't give up hope! Ask questions, get second opinions and hit this beast as hard as you can.

I was originally diagnosed Stage I with a 1.5 cm tumor, clear margins, no nodal involvement. A year after treatment ended diagnosed with a recurrence, Stage III. The consensus with everyone was that I was probably Stage III at diagnosis as the cells had escaped and traveled to the internal mammary nodes, but were too small to be detected by the MRI. I learned that not all tumors drain to the sentinel node(s). About 4 - 5% drain to other nodes and I happened to fall in that small percentage. So if it gives you any hope, I'm 7 years since the 2nd diagnosis. There are many other survivors out there!

I would have been a stage I with 1.8 cm tumor, but also had two lymph nodes involved. So I was told that bumped me up to between stage II and stage III. I will always remember asking my surgeon were the cells in the lymph nodes micro or macro. When he told me "macro" I remember feeling sick to my stomach. One of the lymph nodes was actually larger than my tumor. At that point in time, I felt desperate, and was thinking that things looked really terrible. However, when my oncologist told me that going through chemo would raise my survival rate up 14 percentage points, I was so grateful. (I had tumor removed first, then chemo, and was given 77% survival with chemo.) With having surgery first, I have no idea if I would have had any residual tumor remaining, so don't have that info. Yes, chemo is hard, but very doable. I wanted to start as soon as possible - and I surprised myself by getting through it. You will too! I finished my chemo treatments 2 years ago this past November. I still get scared sometimes, but most days I enjoy life even more now than before all this happened. Donna is right - there is no way to tell what our outcomes will be; I researched so much and finally realized one day that I could have an idea of my chances, but have no crystal ball. This is a wonderful forum - please let us know how you do.

My wife is Stage 3A, she is stable now, the doctors (California/San Diego/Scripps/Moores) are calling her "stable" they don't use the term 'NED" but I think it's the same thing. She is very fortunate, under our Medicare to have a PET scan every 6 months.

She has developed a heart "fast heartbeat" , and the doctors don't know if it was from her chemo,(Adriamycin) they assigned her a cardiologist, and said if you are Stage 3 or 4 it's important to have a cardiologist.

Thanks for your reply. My wife was experiencing rapid heart beat, the doctors are not willing to say it's because of her chemo and radiation, frankly, they don't know, but she had "fluttering" incidents, so, anyway, she went to ER, they brought in a cardiologist (who happeneded to be trained by a woman-breast cancer surfivor) so we consider ourselves VERY lucky, at Scripps, Encinitas CA, ER, they kept her overnight, and then gave her a heart monitor, which in a week, came back that she had incidents of atrial-fibulation, so they have prescribed a blood-thinner, (2x a day at $11.00 per pill) but we found Costco has a price of $6.50 per pill if we join,

The cardiologist does not know if all her chemo including Adriaymycin and radiation to the chest is cause, that's not their call, his mission is to treat immidiate problems, sometimes you have to trust the docs...

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot create polls in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum